Session Abstract

Until relatively recently, the enslavement of captives was widely regarded as a legitimate and progressive substitute for summary execution. This popular formula was espoused by many leading religious authorities and eminent intellectuals, who most commonly framed the enslavement of prisoners taken in violent conflict using the language of a bargain, with prisoners ‘consenting’ to enslavement in order to avoid immediate execution. Both this panel and the multi-panel workshop of which it is part aims to expand existing knowledge in relation to the history of war and slavery. The particular focus of this panel is the history of slavery and abolition in Africa. Each of the papers in the panel speak directly to our central question of how wartime practices shaped evolving patterns of enslavement and associated slave experiences. Through historical case studies of the political, economic and sociological consequences of war and slavery in Sudan, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Uganda and the Mediterranean, the papers in the panel will help to illuminate a number of similarities and differences in relation to experiences of wartime enslavement, enslavement as a source of martial motivation, the complexities associated with the use of slaves as both formal and informal military tools, and the way in which wartime experiences and martial strategies were disseminated as a consequence of slavery. By combining archival research and thematic analysis, the panel will help to expand an evolving conversation regarding the various roles which slaves have historically performed, and the social formations of which they have been part.